Growing Humans
Growing Humans Podcast
Giving Birth: A Transformative Experience
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Giving Birth: A Transformative Experience

Few experiences impact our own development as giving birth does. In this episode, Kim Dawe explores how we transform as we birth children and the powerful skills new mothers bring to the workplace.
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In this episode of the "Growing Humans" podcast, we explore, together with our dear friend, Kim Dawe, the transformative journey of motherhood and its intersection with workplace performance. We each share our own stories of becoming mothers - from the decision to bring a child into the world, to the actual moment of birth and the discombobulating adventure of the first few months of parenthood - and the impact they have had on our becoming.

Kim offers her experiences and wisdom as a mother, a human development expert and a birth doula, reminding us of the importance of choice, empowerment, and intuition in the birthing and parenting journey. She invites us to notice the depth of perspectives and capabilities a new mother gains and how valuable they can be not just at home, but in the workplace - and how much is lost when women returning to work after having a baby are not seen as the precious resources they truly are.

Episode Timeline

  • [00:01:18] Guest introduction

  • [00:05:31] Kim's journey into motherhood

  • [00:15:03] Choice and conscious decision-making

  • [00:24:49] The role of intuition in birth and afterwards

  • [00:35:19] Empowerment and letting go

  • [00:46:50] Learning from postpartum challenges

  • [01:02:33] Developmental growth through parenthood

  • [01:13:35] The gifts of new mothers in the workplace

Leadership books Kim recommends:

Frederic Laloux: Reinventing Organisations

Jonathan Reams (Ed): Maturing Leadership

Guest Bio: Kimberley Dawe

Kim Dawe is a highly experienced, values-led, and commercially minded Leadership Development practitioner and leader. She leads teams to design and deliver transformative leadership development solutions in service of developing purposeful and adaptive leaders/organisations who thrive in complexity.

Kim is currently studying and is interested in how we can integrate the lessons, skills and mindsets from birth and motherhood into leadership.

She asking the questions:

  • What growth/transformation occurs for women in becoming a mother?

  • What would happen if we provided different support structures and scaffolds around women during this season?

  • How could we harness the transformation that occurs during birth for leadership development?

  • How do we shift the narrative of ‘time out of the workforce’ to ‘accelerated leadership potential’?

Are you new to Vertical (Adult) Development? Start by listening to this:

In this episode, we mention “development” several times. If you are not familiar with the notion of “adult (vertical )development”, we encourage you to listen to this introductory podcast Alis recorded a while ago, exploring what vertical development is and the stages of development humans go through throughout their lives:

Vertical Development: How Grown-ups Grow Up
What is Vertical Development and Why Does It Matter?
As our community has been growing quickly over the past months, and many of you are now starting to explore the topic of vertical development, you might enjoy listening to this early episode of The Developmental podcast as a springboard for any nerdy rabbit holes you might want to later throw yourselves into…
Listen now

Dive deeper

Join our in-depth, self-led developmental course for adults who raise and educate children - Growing Humans: How Raising Children Raises Us. As a paid subscriber to this substack, you will receive a 50% discount on the price of the program (you will receive the code when you activate your paid subscription).

Head on to the program page to learn more.

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Discussion about this podcast

Growing Humans
Growing Humans Podcast
Alis and Valerie are two adult developmental researchers and mothers who believe that we, the adults - parents, grandparents, teachers - are the most potent force shaping our children's formative years. How we think, manage our emotions, foster our own maturity deeply impacts our ability to raise thriving, happy, resourceful kids.
In this podcast we focus not on the children, but on us, the 'grown-ups' around them. Together with our guests, we unpack the science of human development in service of becoming more conscious, wiser versions of ourselves. We invite you to slow down, breathe, look inwards, learn about yourself and reflect on who and how you are becoming as you nurture and support the children in your life.
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Appears in episode
Alis Anagnostakis, PhD
Kim Dawe
Valerie Livesay, PhD